"This blunt tool only works because
it collects everything," Judge William H. Pauley said in the
ruling, adding that the NSA has "adapted to confront a new
enemy: a terror network capable of orchestrating attacks across the
world."

"While robust discussions are
underway across the nation, in Congress and at the White House, the
question for this court is whether the government's bulk telephone metadata program is lawful," Pauley said. "This court finds it
is."

Since at least April, the National Security Agency has been collecting the telephone records of…
Read more Read more

Judge Pauley wrote that the Fourth
Amendment does not apply to records held by private corporations, like phone companies.

But earlier this month, U.S. District Court
Judge Richard Leon ruled the data collection program was likely
unconstitutional because its "indiscriminate" and "arbitrary invasion" of privacy violated the Fourth Amendment.